David Plouffe: Newt Gingrich’s Comments ‘Reprehensible’

ABC News(WASHINGTON) — Obama senior adviser David Plouffe eviscerated former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on “This Week” after the GOP presidential candidate lashed out at the president for his comments on the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

“Those comments are reprehensible,” Plouffe said this morning on “This Week.” “Speaker Gingrich is clearly in the last throes of his political career … You can make a decision whether to go out with some shred of dignity or say these irresponsible reckless things. And he’s clearly chosen the latter.”

Plouffe was addressing comments Gingrich made on “The Sean Hannity Show” on Friday, calling President Obama’s remarks on the Martin case at a Friday Rose Garden press conference “disgraceful” for focusing on race.

“What the President said, in a sense, is disgraceful. It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe. Period,” Gingrich said. “We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background. Is the President suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot that would be okay because it wouldn’t look like him? That’s just nonsense.”

President Obama had said “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” in his Friday remarks on the shooting death of the unarmed Florida teenager that has outraged the nation.

“I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids,” President Obama said. “And you know, I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together — federal, state and local — to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann, (R-Minn.), told me that she believed Gingrich was emphasizing that “race shouldn’t be a factor” when examining the case.

“All human life is valuable. That should be the bottom line,” Bachmann said. “I’m a mother … And when you’re a mother, of course, when something tragic like this happens, you want to know what the truth is, what’s the result. That’s why an investigation is so important. We have to get to the truth about what really happened.”